Rangers TV voice Sam Rosen: 'So much excitement'

Sam Rosen has called Rangers games for 30 years on MSG Network. He is famous for his "... and this one will last a lifetime!" call of the Rangers' 1994 Stanley Cup championship.

Rosen, a New City resident, will provide diary entries — as told to Rick Carpiniello — throughout this year's Stanley Cup Final.

"It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years. I keep thinking it's only been a few years ago, and you look up and 20 years have gone by, and finally they're back in. Maybe it's a sign.

"It's exciting. You can just see it. Everybody, wherever you go — you walk into the bagel shop, you walk into the cleaner's, you walk into the local diners, you walk into Dunkin' Donuts for coffee, and people come up to you and want to talk Rangers. They want to talk about the team and how well they're playing, about how far they've come, the way things have gone from the previous coach to this coach. So much excitement, whether it's older people, younger people, kids. Everybody is excited about it. Fathers have their kids in hand, and they're telling them about the Rangers, and they'll introduce me to them, and the kids will have a jersey on and talk about their favorite player. It's just great to see.

"And in a city like ours, it's so vast, with so many people with so many interests, but to see hockey capturing the excitement and the whole town talking about it is great. It's great for the sport. With most of the other teams struggling, this is a perfect time, and the Rangers have stepped into an opening and they've grabbed it, and I think the surprise is what's really helped capture the moment. I don't think anyone realized the team could be this good and go this far.

"The '94 team, you think about that year, the team missing the playoffs the year before, Mike Keenan coming in as coach, but having that nucleus of superstar players, loaded with future Hall of Famers, everyone expected that team to go a long way, and they did.

"They had a great regular season, and then came the trade-deadline deals and everyone wondered what would happen, but they rolled into the playoffs and the first two rounds, nine games, they were doing what everyone expected. Then came the Devils series, which in my mind still remains the greatest series ever, and of course winning Game 7 in double-OT, I still think about that moment and the roller coaster of emotions that night, and JD (John Davidson) looking at me between overtime periods and thinking I was going to keel over with the way things had gone. He said, 'What's wrong?' I said, 'Who can take this?'

"And then winning and going to the Stanley Cup Final and getting up three games to one, coming back from Vancouver, then having the disappointment of having to go back to Vancouver, then losing out there. Then the realization that, 'It's Game 7; they could actually lose this thing.' Then winning it, and the most exciting moment I've experienced in my entire career — that moment of joy.

"As I said, 'This one will last a lifetime.' It will always last a lifetime for me, and I certainly hope this Rangers team wins another one, wins this Cup, but that first one will always last a lifetime because it was such an enormous victory for the team, for the city, having gone so long without a championship. For the Rangers to win that one, what a magnificent feeling. Now to have the chance to see the Rangers do it again, that's really exciting."